1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for using host and storage controller port information to configure paths between a host and storage controller
2. Description of the Related Art
Host systems in a storage network may communicate with a storage controller through multiple paths over one or more fabrics of switches. Each host port may connect to multiple storage controller ports via fabric switches and each storage controller port may connect to multiple host ports. An administrator may configure paths for a host to use to communicate Input/Output (I/O) requests to a storage controller to access storage volumes managed by the storage controller. The administrator may manually examine a topology of a network system to determine which host and storage controller ports to use to configure paths for I/O communication. The administrator may take into account customer policies in determining the number of paths to configure for a host.
An administrator may configure a mapping of host ports to logical volumes, such as Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) the storage controller configures in storage and mask them on every port on the storage controller. The administrator may take into account the network traffic and usage of hosts, storage controllers and ports in determining how to allocate and configure pathing resources.
There is a need in the art for improved techniques for forming paths in a network between hosts and storage controllers.